Lens Recommendation for Shark Dive

[Blackcrusader]

Playing with tigers and bulls is one thing, a fired-up feeding great white is something else entirely.

Lets face it.. getting up close with large sharks is a great feeling. Humans are not generally on the menu.

When I got that Tiger shot in the Maldives there were some nervous divers wondering how I can remain so calm as she approached me before I got the shot and had to use one hand to guide her away.
Divers on our boat would ask me why do the sharks always seem to be attracted to me.

I flippantly replied I had taken the tuna heads used for feeding and rubbed the blood and guts on my shorts and t shirt. I was joking of course but some divers took it for being a thing I did lol. I took that November 2025 just after that diver at the Shark Tank got nibbled on the head by a Tiger shark. All the dive ops were abuzz with that news.

The best place to get near sharks is near as possible to a bait ball. Just try not to be bait yourself lol

 

[Blackcrusader]

Use your wide lens and wait until the sharks get within almost touching distance or barely 5' away. Farther away even in clear water will degrade your image.

For your rig I'd shoot M mode setting your shutter speed somewhat high, at least 1/200 or more.

Use f-stop of 5.6 and AUTO ISO. Put you camera in Multi-Shot mode even if a slow 3 FPS (Frames Per Second) to maximize getting some keepers.

I believe your camera also has some form of focus tracking and I'd use that too........

Modern cameras handle higher ISOs than back in the day and software can De-Noise many shots easily.

Just one old guy's opinion

David Haas

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Love the photo of the mouth and teeth on top right photo. Good strobe to get the lighting underneath.

Assume not in a cage lol

 

[David Haas]

Three trips to Isla Guadalupe Mexico for Great White Shark cage diving only......2002, 2003 and 2008. It's now closed permanently by the Mexican government and unlikely to ever re-open

That's also assuming a fishing fleet didn't sail in there and fish everything out

Those charters documented and watched over the Great White sharks migrating up the coast annually provided tons of data both citizen science and degreed scientific studies. I personally know one lady, NOT a degreed scientist whose data was used for years by academics in California studying Great White sharks.....She had more identification and behaviors documented that anyone back in the day.////////A true "citizen scientist" as many are now called.......

Some operations had a few incidents (very few considering the thousands of hours people spent observing in cages) and as usual the online world "reporting" stirred up controversy.....

It was the clearest water in the world to see and photograph Great White sharks and employed lots of people both US and Mexico........The support for charters especially in Ensenada, Mexico where many boats departed from the last few years lost $$$ millions

Sad it's no more

DH